Sunflower Bean | Human Interest
YES, Manchester
12th December 2025

The New York trio bring their expansive new sound to intimate surrounds in Manchester.

Sunflower Bean came into tonight’s show with plenty of pent-up energy to burn through. After wrapping a successful tour of UK arenas opening for Wolf Alice on Tuesday – inspiring a rare act of devotion for a support band, when they had the whole of Nottingham Arena waving their phone lights along to I Knew Love – their attempts to play one last show with the London four-piece in Dublin on Wednesday were thwarted by Storm Bram and subsequent ferry cancellations.

This sets the stage nicely for this sold-out Manchester gig, though, which sees them back in the more familiar surrounds of an intimate room. Before that, though, there’s a superb opening set by East London outfit Human Interest, whose sound lies somewhere between scuzzy garage-pop and eighties post-punk. On stage, those influences meld thrillingly into something bracingly noisy and a little chaotic. With two fine EPs behind them, their debut record, when it does arrive, is one to keep an eye out for.

Sunflower Bean, on the other hand, are already well-established as one of the most consistently accomplished indie rock bands of the past decade, and are out on this run in support of their fourth full-length, Mortal Primetime, released back in April. Its live iterations demonstrate why it is their best record to date; whilst still rooted in the glam-tinged melodic rock that has long been the Sunflower Bean blueprint, every track imbues that foundation with new colours.

Opener Champagne Taste is a case in point, channelling the Lower East Side punk of the 1970s, whilst the set’s other bookend, Nothing Romantic, is a fuzzy exercise in power-pop, something prime Blondie might have written if they’d been in a particularly propulsive frame of mind.

There are real departures, too, among the new material, including the woozy pop of Look What You’ve Done to Me and the gorgeous, folk-tinged ballade of I Knew Love, a track which should open the door for further exploration of the group’s gentler side in future. That isn’t to say that the out-and-out rockers we’ve come to know the New York trio as have left the building, though; Julia Cumming remains the consummate frontwoman, and an early set highlight sees her tearing through a furious take on an early Bean classic, Somebody Call a Doctor, whilst lying on the floor of The Pink Room, in amongst the crowd.

They truly take flight on songs where guitarist Nick Kivlen and drummer Olive Faber are able to demonstrate their chops; the former, in particular, delivers searing riffery on the likes of Lucky Number, Shake and Who Put You Up to This? At just an hour and twelve songs long, the set is disappointingly brief, and appears to have shed a few songs since their headline show in London last week; for the time they were on stage, though, they left it all out there, a band rejuvenated by the bold steps they’ve taken on their latest record.

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You can find Sunflower Bean on their website | Facebook | Instagram

Words by Joe Goggins: find him on X here

All photos by Melanie Smith from the band’s support slot to Wolf Alice at Manchester’s AO Arena – Louder Than War | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Portfolio